Brics is not an anti-US forum but a voice of the Global South

US hostility may strengthen the group and play into China's hands

- MIHIR SHARMA

It likes to think of itself as the developing world's equivalent of the Group of Seven. Yet unlike the G-7, the Brics bloc—designed for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but now expanded to 11 members—has sharply diverging interests. It includes energy exporters like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as importers like India; material-hungry manufacturing giants like China and commodity superpowers like Brazil; moderate democracies like Indonesia and extremist theocracies like Iran.

If there's one thing that almost all of them have in common, however, it's that they want to ensure the grouping's most powerful member, China, doesn't dominate. Beijing might want to use its influence over global trade to increase the use of the yuan; but India has made it clear that replacing the US dollar as the global reserve currency isn't part of Brics's mandate. Some of the newer members, such as the UAE, are close US allies.